Control mechanism for the doors of material distributing receptacles



June 13, 1950 G. K. v|A| 2,511,311

coNTRoL MECHANISM FOR THE DooRs oF MATERIAL DISTRIBUTING REcEPTAcLEsFiled April 2, 1947 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 er Y June 13, 1950 G. K. vlALl.2,511,311

coNTRoL MECHANTSM FOR THE DooRs 0F MATERIAL DTSTRTBUTTNG REcEPTAcLEs 3Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 2, 1947 Suvewbos George K Vall,

June .13, 1950 G. K. vlALL v coNTRoL MECHANISM FOR THE DooRs oF MATERIALDISTRIBUTING RECEPTACLES 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed April 2, 1947 JnuemowGeorge I1. V/L'all,

Patented June 13, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONTROL MECHANISM FORTHEv DOORS F MATERIAL DISTRIBUTING' RZECEPTACLES? George K. Vall,Milwaukee, Wis.,L assignor. tol

Chain Belt Company, Milwaukee.. Wis., a.cor. poratonof WisconsinApplication April 2, 1947, Serial NoJ 738,998

6vv Claims.

The invention relates-to-apparatus for distrib-- uting concrete orsimilar materials, of which the wellv known. boom and' bucket mechanismWidely employed .inA con-junction. with. paving` concrete; mixers: inthe construction. of; roads, streetpavements, etc. may be cited as artypical example. Such mechanism.-4 comprises: a generally horizontalboom. extending: from the; discharge end of: the mixing machineandproviding anpelevated. trackvvay.` upon which. a` receptacle or bucket'is mounted forreciprocatoryitravel. The

sirable toA deposit' onlyvf'a. parliof;r av batch at one'v placerandthen move thefbucket-toranother point` for` further discharge; )Enlstill other instances itf maybe wished' to: depositi theconcrete as aribbon, whicnf` is accomplishedby maintaining4 the bucket doors.partially or' completely open during: traverse.- oft the: bucket alongthe boom.

The bucket doors are controlled by the mixer operator from his; usual;rstation on-v the mixing l machine', and in order thaty the concrete maybe discharged from thea'bucketr i-nv any-ot` the abovedescribedmannersatwiii, itis; essential thatv he havecompletef control overthevbucket doors at all times,Y regardlessoithe position of the'- bucket onfthe boom.. and cfg: its rate y and'direction of travel thereon.

Itis the principal'. object of the present. invenV tion to --provide animproved remote control mech--l anism whiclr gives the. operator suchcomplete control over the doors, tothe end that lie-may at any timeeiiect; positive-opening and closing mover-mentsl of them. to anydesired extent Within their limits of. movement,l and. may. maintain;

. I6 of the mixerframe;

characters designate like partsin` all the views:

Figure 1 isa side elevational View, partly broken away and in section,of a well known typev of con-- cretery mixer boom and bucketdistributing ap' paratus. equipped with one form of bucket doorv controlmechanism. constructedv and arranged in accordance.vv-ithYthefinvention, the parts of such mechanism being shown. in the positionsthey occupy when. the. bucket door is full-y closed:

Fig. 2.- is a. enlarged longitudinalsectional-elevational; view, onapproxi-mately the planes indicated by the line 2.-2f of' Fig. 3,showingA the parts of the. door control. mechanism in the positions`they assume when the door is in the.

fully openposition indicated broken lines in Fig; 1;

Fig. b -is` aplan-v view, partly broken away, of thef essential parts ofthe apparatus shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4V is an-end elevationalV view, as seen froml the left or' Fig. 2;.

Fig?.V 5Y is` a diagrammatic perspective view il lustratingthemotionslof the severalY gears oi the control mechanism. in the moving of thebucket door toward open position, the bucket be-y ingstationary' on theboom;

Fig. 6. is. a fragmentary plan view of a modied form of the: invention,thefparts being shown in the door-closed positions;

Figs: 7 and-8. aref longitudinal sectional views, on approximately'therespective. planes indicated byfthe-lines 1--1 and 8:-8: of Fig. 6*; thelatter ViewA showingthe pa-rtsY sition; and

Fig. 9is across sectionalv viewon approximately thel planes'- indicatedby the line 9'-9y of Fig. '7, looking in the direction of theA arrows.

Referring rst. to, Figs. 1-5 of the said drawings, the boom I Icomprises a pair of laterally spaced channel members. I 2- and I3, theinner endsof which are supported adjacent the discharge opening of themixer drum (not shown) by a. pin I4: which connects them to a boomswingt` pivot member I5V mounted by a portion The lower flanges of thechannels IZ-.and I3constitute trackways for abucket; carriage I 'Iwhichistraversably mounted thereon by wheels. or rollers I8. A bucket I9 ishunglfrom said carriage bye a mounting 20, and

is provided withi an oscillatory door 2lv for controlling discharge ofthebucket contents through the.- bottom. discharge opening 22. From itsclosed. position, shown in fulll lines in Fig. 1, this, door may beswungin a. clockwise direction -by linkage 23 to. an open'position, indicatedin.

in an intermediate pobroken lines, and back again, as is well known inthe art. The bucket is traversed back and forth along the boom by anout-haul cable 24 and an in-haul cable 25, each fastened to the carriageI1 by a cable anchor 26 and passing around separate sheaves 21journalled on pin I4 and thence upwardly through the eye of the boompivot member I to a winding drum, not shown. The parts thus fardescribed are conventional and well known in the art.

The mechanism of the present invention for actuating the linkage 23whereby to move the bucket door 2| between its open and :closedpositions at will, comprises a differential gear unit mounted upon thecarriage I1, and means whereby the functioning of such unit may bevolitionally controlled by the operator from his station on the mixer topositively open and/or close the said door to any desired extent, and tohold it in any position to which it may be moved for such periods oftime as may be necessary or desirable. The differential unit on thecarriage may take various forms, that shown in Figs. 1-5 being of theplanetary spur gear type, comprising a pair of spur gears 30 and 3| ofequal diameters each rotatably mounted on an end portion of a shaft 32,the mid portion of which is journalled in a pedestal bearing 33 securedto the iioor of the carriage l1 intermediate the boom channels l2 andI3. Intermediate the gear 3|! and the bearing 33 the shaft 32 rigidlycarries a pair of oppositely extending arms 34, the outer ends of whichjournal short shafts 36, each of which has a pair of spur pinions 31 and38 rigidly secured thereto. These pinions are all of the same diameter,and the two pinions 31 are alined and mesh with the gear 30 at oppositesides thereof, while the two pinions 38 are disposed at substantiallythe longitudinal center line of the carriage I 1. In like manner asecond pair of oppositely extending arms 40 is secured to the shaft 32intermediate the bearing 33 and the gear 3l, these arms being somewhatcircumferential-ily oiT-set with respect to the arms 34, as will beclear from Figs. 1 and 2. The outer ends of the arms 40 journal shafts4I, each of which rigidly carries a pair of spur pinions 42 and 43.These pinions are all of the same diameter as the pinions 31 and 38, andthe pinions 42 are alined and mesh with the pinions 38, while thepinions 43 are alined and mesh with the gear 3|. The left hand arm 40 isprovided with an extension 44 which is pivotally connected at 45 to theupper end o-f the door-operating linkage 23.

The gear unit would be fully operative with but one set of pinions 31,38, 42 and 43 and arms 34 and 40 carrying the same, and the right handset of these elements is added merely to balance the device anddistribute the load.

A rack 46 is flxedly secured to the upper portion of the boom channel |2and extends substantially throughout the length of the latter inposition for its teeth to engage with those at the top of the spur gear30. A second rack 48 extends along the lower portion of the boom channelI3, being mounted for longitudinal reciprocation thereon by a dove-tailslide connection 41. The teeth of this rack 48 are engaged by those atthe bottom of the spur gear 3|, and the rear end of this rack isconnected to the piston rod 49 of a double acting hydraulic ram orequivalent motor 50 carried by the rear end of the boom channel I3. atesource of supply, not shown, may be supplied to and exhausted from thesaid motor at will Actuating uid from any appropri-l through conduits 5|extending to the operators station on the mixer, where they areconnected to any suitable control valve.

The bucket door 2| here shown is of a pendulous type which tends tomaintain the closed position shown in full lines in Fig. 1, but theoperation of the present control mechanism is in no wise dependent uponthis characteristic, and it would function equally as well in connectionwith a self-opening type of door, such as that shown for example in theprior U. S. patent of Ball and Hilkemeier, No. 2,230,478 grantedFebrua-ry 4, 1941.

In the apparatus here illustrated, the normal or door-closed position ofthe control mechanism is shown in Fig. l, and so long as the slidablymounted rack 48 is maintained in the outward position there shown therewill be no actuation of the door-operating linkage 23, whether thebucket be stationary on the boom or traversed in either directionthereon. If for example, the bucket be drawn inwardly along the boom (i.e. from left to right as viewed in Fig. 1) by the traverse cable 2li.the gear 3| will roll upon its rack 48, rotating in a clockwisedirection and driving its pinions 43 and 42 in a counterclockwisedirection, while the gear 3i! will be rotated by its rack 46 in acounterclcckwise direction and will drive its pinions 31 and 38 in aclockwise direction. Since the ratios between the gears and theirrespective pinions are the same, the intermeshing pinions 33 and 42 willbe driven in opposite directions at equal speeds and there will be noreaction tending to change the positions of the arms 34, 4Q and 44whereby to actuate the linkage 23. The same will be true during outwardtraverse of the bucket on the boom, except of course that the severalgears and pinions will be rotated in directions opposite to those abovedescribed.

On the other hand, if while the bucket is either stationary on the boomor travelling in either direction thereon, the motor 58 be actuated toretract the slidable rack 48 from its Fig. 1 position toward or to theposition shown in Fig. 2, the differential gear unit will function toactuate the linkage 23 and move the door 2| toward or to its broken lineposition in Fig. 1. Assuming for instance that the bucket is stationaryon the boom, and referring to Fig. 5, the fixed rack 46 of course willhold the gear 30 against rotation while rightward movement of the rack43 by the motor 5? will cause counterclockwise motion of the gear 3|,which will drive pinion 43, shaft 4| and pinion 42 in a clockwisedirection, The latter pinion in turn will drive pinion 38, shaft 36 andpinion 31 in a counterclockwise direction, and such movement of pinion31 will cause it to react with the stationary gear 3|] and revolve aboutit in a counterclockwise direction, thus depressing its carrying arm 34.The motion thus imparted to this arm is transmitted through the shaft 32to the other pinion-carrying arm 4|! and through its extension 44 to thedoor-operating linkage 23, thereby opening the door 2 I. The angularmovement of the arms 34 and 40, and their pinions, is in the samedirection as that in which the gear 3| is being rotated by the rack 48,but the rate of such arm and pinion motion is only one-half that of thegear movement.

The parts are so proportioned that a full stroke of the piston of theram 5|] will effect a complete movement of the door from one extremeposition to the other, but since door movement occurs only as the rack48 is moved relative to the rack 4S, obviously if the ram piston bemoved through only a,- portion oits stroke the'door will be openedcrclosed only toa corresponding. extent.v

As soon as motion of rack 48' ceases thefgearing locks to preventmovement of the door in either direction and the door will thus be heldinl its new position until the rack 48 isagain shifted. In the pehduloustypev of door hereA shown, the weight of the door tends to return it toits closed position, resulting in a constant upward push through linkage23v to arm 44- tending to move such arm, together with the arms 40 and34 and the pinions carried thereby, in a clockwise direction. Any. suchrevolution oi the pin-ions 43 and 3l about their now stationiary gearsl3| and 3l) would requirethat each of such pinions rotate about its axisinv a clockK wise direction, which is impossible due to the fact thatthe intermeshing pinions ft2 and 38 rigidly associated with said pinions43 and 31 can rotate only in opposite directions. Thus, so long as therack 43 remains stationary the geari ing automatically prevents movementof the door; andthe same would be true if. the door' were oftheselfeopening type shownin theA above mentionedU. S. Patent No.2,230,478, or if theA door linkageA were such as to exert a downwardpull rather than an upward thrust on the arm 44.

Obviously, when the'motor 5t!I is actuated to shift the rack I3Vleftward from its Fig. 2 position the motions above described inconnection with the' opening of the door will occur in: reverse, thuseiiecting closing movement of. the door.

The mechanism will function in similar man'- ners to either open or'close the door while 'the bucket` is being traversed in 'eitherdirection along the boom. In these cases however, since a's'previouslyexplained the gearsV to' and A3l are rotating in opposite directionsd'ue tov bucket traverse, the door operating" movements are the resultvof increase 'or decrease in the rateof rota tion 'of the gear 3l ascompared to that of the gear 3B, when the rack E is shifted. That isto-say, ifv the bucket' is traveling inwardly on the boom, the gear 3swill be rotating counterolookwiseV and the gear 3l clockwise, at equaly'speells If now the ra'ok E8 be shifted" 'toward the rightthe result isan acceleration of the gearsi while the'gear 35) maintains its same rateof rotation. Obviously, in eiect this is the same as starting' the gear3| from a state of rest whileholdin'g the gear 3o stationary, 'andtherefore the prrlions 'l' Will react with the gear 3 l toproducecounterclockwise movement of 'the arms 34, lll and il withconsequent actuation of the linkage 23 to open the door. on the otherhand, if` with the rack s be shifted toward the left, 'the speed o'f thegear 3l relative toftha't or 'the' gear 3l) will be reduced, the arms34', 40 and All raised, and the door closed. In this 'case however, thefaster 'moving' gear 30 acts as the driver, with the reaction whichproduces the movement `of the arms taking place between the 'pinio'ns-43 and the slower moving' gear 3|.. It will he'v'ere theless be in theproper direction to effect closing movement of the door.

With the bucket vtraveling outwardly on the boom the effect will be thesame, except that here shifting of the rack toward the right willproduce deceleration of thev gear 3l, 'while rack movement toward theleft will acceleratesuch g'al".

A second form of gearing suitable 'to ac coninlish theV same. generalresults isf shown4 in:v` Figs.: 6-9,i this unit being of the beveldifferential. type. This. form of the. invention is also illus,-

tratedas being provided with a reversing'idler gear which permitsV bothracks being disposedv ateither thezbottom or the' top of the boomchannels, .andvr whichy could. be. readily incorporated of 'al'inedfbearings Gland 62 journalling shaftsv BS-Iand Grespectively. At oneY endthe shaft 631rigidl'y carriesa spurgear B5: and at its other endabevelgear t6', while the shaft t@ rigidly carries aspur gear Stand abevel gear E8' in like positions, the two. bevel gears facingv oneanol'llie'r,` as. willbe readily understood from Figs. 6 and 91.' irectangular frame or pinion carrier fhas its side members journalled onthe shafts [i3-and @4f between the respective bearings El and 62r` andthe associated bevel gears t6 and' 58. The end members of the frame Se'have bevel pinions ill and 'll rotatably mounted thereon, which:pini'onsf are disposed' between and in mesh with the. bevel gears 66and 6B'. An arm 12 is rigidly secured to one end of the frame $9 andhasfa pivotalcohnection 1.3 with the door-operating linkage 2-3.'

A-rack- 'Mis rigidly mounted on the lower portio-n of the boom channell2, in position to engage-the teeth of1 the spur gear 55T at the bottomthereof, while a rack T5 is longitudinally slidably"7l mounted on thelower portion of the boomv Vthe rack l5 and the gear 6T, the latter geartogether with its associated bevel gear t8 will rotate in a directionopposite to that of the gears E5 ahd'G.

The rack l of course is attached to a motor sil'z'llar to the motor 5Gof the preceding form, whereby the rack may be reciprocatedlongitudinally to eiect opening and closing movements of the door.

The operation of this form of the invention is 4'substantially the sameas that of the spur gear type of unit described above. So long `as thebevel gears SS' and 88 are rotated in opposite directions at equalspeeds the pinions 'i and it merely idle and there is no reactionthereof toproduce actuation of the linkage 23. However, if the rack l5be shifted in one direction or the other whereby, to differentiate thespeed of yrotation ofthe gear Q68 from that of the geai` $6, the'pinions "l0 and il will be caused to revolvo about the slower movinggear and through their carrier 9 and arm 12 eiect actuation ofth'e'l'inka'ge 23 Ain the proper direction to open or close the doorasdesired. K

If the idler gear 'l5 were placed on the opposite side o'f the unit,between the gear 65 and rack lil, the racks might be disposed along thetops of 'the boom channels instead of at the lower portions thereof, ashere shown.

What is claimed is: I

1. 'In apparatus for distributing concrete and the like, the combinationof a trackway; a material receptacle traversably mounted on said.trackway and having a discharge controlling door; means for traversingthe receptacle along the trackway in either direction at will; means'connected to the receptacle door for actuating it between open andclosed positions; a diierential mechanism connected to said dooractuating means for effecting movements thereof to open and close thedoor at will, regardless of the position or direction and rate ofmovement of the receptacle on the trackway, said mechanism comprising apair of rack elements mounted upon and extending along the trackway, oneof which elements is longitudinally movable relative to the other, and aplanetary gear unit engaging said elements; and motive means connectedto said mechanism for eiecting differential operation thereof, saidmotive means being volitionally operable to varying extents to open andclose the door to extents proportional to the movements of the motivemeans, the door remaining in any position it has attained when themotive means is at rest.

2. In apparatus for distributing concrete and the like, the combinationof a trackway; material conveying means comprising a receptacletraversably mounted on said trackway, said receptacle having a door forcontrolling discharge of material therefrom; a diierential gearmechanism mounted on said conveying means; connections between saiddierential mechanism and the receptacle door, whereby the latter may bemoved by the former; means for traversing the conveying means anddilerential mechanism along the trackway; elements extending along thetrackway for constant engagement with the differential mechanismthroughout said traverse and normally preventing differential action ofsaid mechanism whereby to maintain the receptacle door in yany givenposition; and volitionally operable means for controlling one of saidelements whereby to cause diierential action of said mechanism withconsequent movement of the door to a new position.

3. In apparatus for distributing concrete and the like, the combinationof a trackway; material conveying means comprising a receptacletraversably mounted on said trackway, said recepta cle having a door forcontrolling discharge of material therefrom; a dilerential gearmechanism mounted on said conveying means; connections between saiddifferential mechanism and the receptacle door, whereby the latter maybe moved by the former; means for traversing the conveying means anddifferential mechanism along the trackway; a pair of elements extendingalong said trackway for constant engagement with the diierentialmechanism, said elements being mounted for relative movement betweenthem and in the absence of such movement functioning to preventdiierential action of said mechanism whereby to maintain the receptacledoor in any given position; and means operable at will to vary thepositions of said elements relative to one another, whereby to producedifferential action of said mechanism with consequent movement of thedoor from its said pos tion.

4. In apparatus for distributing concrete and the like. the combinationof a trackway; material conveying means comprising a receptacletraversably mounted on said trackway, said receptacle having a door forcontrolling discharge of material therefrom; a differential unit mountedon said conveying means, comprising a pair of gears, pinionsI driven bysaid gears, and means mounting said pinions for revolution about thegears; connections between said pinion mounting means and the receptacledoor, whereby the latter may be moved by the former; means fortraversing said conveying means and differential unit along thetrackway; a rack for each of said gears, mounted upon and extendingalong the trackway, for imparting equal and opposite rotation to thegears during said traverse whereby to prevent revolution of the pinionsabout the gears and thus maintain the receptacle door in any givenposition, one of said racks being mounted for longitudinal movementrelative to the other; and means operable at will to shift said movablerack whereby to accelerate or decelerate one of the gears relative tothe other and thus produce revolution of the pinions about the gearswith consequent movement of the door to a new position.

5. In apparatus for distributing concrete and the like, the combinationof a trackway; material conveying means comprising a receptacletraversably mounted on said trackway, said receptacle having a door forcontrolling discharge of material therefrom; a differential unit mountedon said conveying means, comprising a pair of axially alined gears, aset of pinions associated with each gear, each such set comprising apinion meshing with one of the gears and a pinion meshing with the likepinion of the other set, and carrier means for the pinion sets mountingthem for revolution about the gears; connections between said carriermeans and the receptacle door, whereby the latter may be shifted bymovement of the former; means for traversing said conveying means anddifferential unit along the trackway; a rack for each of said gears,disposed along the trackway, said racks being arranged to impart equaland opposite rotation to the gears during said traverse whereby toprevent revolution of the pinions about the gears and thus maintain thereceptacle door in any given position, one of said racks being mountedfor longitudinal reciprocation relative to the other; and power meansconnected to said movable rack and operable at will to shift the same,whereby to increase or decrease the speed of its gear relative to thatof the other gear and thus produce revolution of the pinion sets withconsequent movement of the door to a new position.

`6. In apparatus for distributing concrete and the like, the combinationof a trackway; material conveying means traversably mounted on saidtrackway, comprising a receptacle having a door for controllingdischarge of material therefrom; a differential unit mounted on saidconveying means, comprising a pair of alined driving gears and adiierential gear device between them having a Pinion carrier movablethrough diierential motion of said driving gears; connections betweensaid pinion carrier and the receptacle door, whereby the latter may beshifted through movement of the former; means for traversing saidconveying means and difierential unit along the trackway; a pair ofracks extending along the tra-ckway in position to impart equal andopposite rotation to said driving gears during such traverse, whereby toprevent movement of said pinion carrier and thus maintain the receptacledoor in any given position, one of said racks being mounted forlongitudinal reciprocation relative to the other; and a motor mounted onthe trackway and connected to said 9 movable rack, said motor beingoperable at will to shift such rack whereby to produce the differentialmovement of the driving gears necessary to effect movement of the pinioncarrier and shifting of the door.

GEORGE K. VIALL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

10 UNITED STATES PA'I'ENrs- Number Number Name Date Lichtenberg Mar. 28,1922 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain Oct. 21, 1929

